I REALLY have to apologize for uploading so late! I think all of my readers got bored of waiting and left… if you're still reading this, then hoo-ah!
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Welcome to Rosetta!
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"Mmm…" Luna opened her eyes to see CJ frowning at his device. His eyes reflected the white lettering that was un readable from where Luna was laying. She was concerned at his facial expression. The two were sitting in the park again, snuggling in the cold with him under a blanket.
"CJ?" Chris shut his eyes and gave Luna a look that already gave away what he was going to say next.
"Luna… I know this is sudden but I have to go back." Luna widened her eyes, now sitting up and looking at him with a bewildered expression.
"What? Why?" Luna asked. She clung onto CJ, who shut his eyes.
"The Neolian defense line has been overrun and now every available soldier has to be on the frontlines. And besides, I have a weapon that can also help in aiding with us holding back the Aeolians." Luna was horrified, but she did her best to stay strong.
"All… alright… But, promise me you'll come home soon okay?" Luna asked, desperate as she clung on harder. Tears were already coming at her eyes for the sudden departure. CJ smiled,
"I promise. Do me a favor and send my regards to my little brother and my mom okay?" Luna nodded. She opened her mouth, but closed it and looked away. CJ raised an eyebrow.
"What is it?" They both got up, CJ folding the blanket. Luna shook her head. She hugged him surprisingly and caused him to almost fall back.
"I'll tell you once you come back. I love you CJ." Chris smiled, pulling her apart so that he could firmly plant his lips on his. They broke apart, giving each other painful, sad smiles.
"You're what I'm fighting for Luna, I love you too."
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5:45 AM Daybreak
"Ketchup! The rest of our guys left! We've got to get out of here before the reinforcements find us! Come on, let's go!" The two climbed faster up the hill with the morning sun bearing down their backs, carrying their equipment with them and struggling. They finally made it to the top to find a personal helicopter with them. A gunner and two empty seats were there for them.
"Are we the last ones?" Ash asks.
"Yeah! Everybody's been evacuated, now we gotta get the hell out of here before the mavericks catch us!" The pilot said. Unfortunately, every single other soldier had a higher priority than the two snipers, so they left last. They didn't complain; they actually wanted to stay back and make sure everything went okay.
"Alright! Let's go!" The two feel the helicopter leave the ground, and watch as flying guardians fly towards them.
"Gunner! Come on!" The gunner put out his cigarette and shouted,
"Alright, alright!" He pressed a pedal, making a platform for him and his minigun to slide onto. He started firing at the Mavericks. Luckily, the two snipers got a good pilot and gunner.
"Shit! Break left, there's a missile heading our way!" The gunner said as the roar of the minigun shook the helicopter.
"Hang on!" The helicopter banked left, barely avoiding a missile, but plasma shots hit the tail rotor and made it start spinning. To make matters worse, the entire tail was blown apart from the rocket.
"Fuck! Of all times!" The pilot swore as everybody struggled to stay where they were.
"Hang on!" Ash almost fell out, but Jonsey grabbed his wrist and swore.
"Mayday! This is two-four, we're going to crash. Sorry guys, we're gonna land behind enemy lines!"
"Ash! Hold on to the seat!" Jonsey yelled out. Ash did so, holding the seat barely. The helicopter spun out of control. But instead of the gunner falling out, he held the handle with a death grip and let go of the minigun. The pilot did all he could to try to lessen the impact as they spiraled into the ground behind the plateau they took off from.
"This is two-four, we're landing at coordinates-" The pilot's words were drowned out from Ash's ears as he grit his teeth and shut his eyes from the impact of the helicopter landing on the grass. Ash felt his body jerk and hit the seat in front of him, giving him a nasty headache as he stood back up with a groan. Dirt flew everywhere, blocking most of his view, but something was off… he was standing at an angle. He looked outside to see the ground at the right level, but the trees were growing in a strange way… could it be that-
Ash's thoughts were interrupted by a line of curses from Jonsey.
"Holy shit! We're right at the edge of a cliff!" The gunner looked to the left side of the broken helicopter, realizing that his words were true. Foliage and green from a forest was below them, and it was a hundred foot vertical drop. The three looked at the pilot seat, but found a man unmoving at the seat. What happened next happened in slow motion. An explosion came from the helicopter, making it fly off the cliff for the three to hit a free fall. Ash looked at his left in horror at the green foliage coming closer and closer as his voice rose in a scream. He held on to the seat, but closed his eyes when the helicopter dropped right into the trees.
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"Get her to the medical room! Hurry!" Cyphrus said as he carried an unconscious red haired girl bridal style and handed her to another bigger wardog soldier. Lily ran and stopped where Cyphrus stood, which was right in front of the medical wing.
"Cyphrus!" The red haired teen turned around and tore off his black beanie and ran to her.
"Any news on Ash and the others?" Lily shook her head and frowned.
"No, their last transmission pinpointed their area, but I don't know if we can get there in time before the mavericks do." Cyphrus gritted his teeth.
"We've got to get them!" Cyphrus said in horror. They were behind enemy lines the entire time, what would happen if they had a downed crew of four right next to where a major battle took place?
"We're assembling a search team, but our best guys are beat from the raid," Lily said as a patient was wheeled into the medical wing.
"Besides, a lot of us got injured too." Cyphrus clenched his fists.
"Is there anybody who can volunteer for a search and rescue?"
"No, more than half of our forces are being used to re-take most of the city," Lily said.
"I'll go, we need to find them!" Cyphrus said with a grave tone.
"No, Cyphrus! Look at yourself! You're not in any condition to go yet! We need to organize this, not go head first into whatever's going to happen!" Lily said as she put a hand on his chest. Cyphrus looked at himself, clenching his teeth at all the burns at his armor. Luckily, he wasn't damaged enough to the point of burning his flesh under.
"She's got a point," Model C spoke up. "You're not really combat ready as of now."
"Besides, when Mari wakes up, you need to be there," Lily told Cyphrus. Cyphrus sighed, clenched his fist, and closed his eyes.
"I promised them Lily; I promised Latias he'll be back. I can't go back on that promise!" Cyphrus said as he opened his eyes and his red eyes sparked a fire within. Lily looked deeply into his eyes, calming him as he stared at those ocean like sapphires.
"Cyphrus… You're really selfless, you know that?" Lily relaxed her shoulders and gave him a smile. Despite how dirty those two were, she hugged him. Cyphrus was slightly caught off guard, not really wanting a hug but a way to help Ash. But he returned it anyway, smiling as she looked up at him. He smiled back at her, wondering how a simple hug can calm him down as fast as that.
"Don't worry Cyphrus, stay here with your sister. I'll arrange the search party. I'm responsible for him too," Lily said as the two break apart.
"Thank you."
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"Unnnghhh…" Ash slowly opened his eyes, wondering why the leaves were so small. He was also in a very awkward position… he was hanging! Ash opened his eyes and looked around and saw that his body was slumped over a branch that was hanging him by the waist. Ash estimated how far up he was-
Crack.
"Oh no," Ash said as he realized that the crack came from his branch. He could only widen his eyes as his branch fell along with him. He yelped as he fell ten feet. He hit the ground, rolling and hitting his head on a tree stump.
"OW!" Ash clutched his head, even with his protective helmet, it still hurt his head. His nose was now decorated with a cut and flowing blood, flowing down the sides of his face. He dragged himself to the stump and leaned back on it. He took off his camouflage head protection, revealing his face and hair. He sighed, letting the cool air meet his face.
"Woah! And I thought you were a monster!" Ash immediately reached for his pistol and whipped it out towards two kids. One was a small boy; the other was a tall girl. She looked rather happy to see him.
"Wow, you are completely covered in leaves!" The girl laughed. She must've been fifteen by the way she looked. Ash blinked, they're not even reacting to the pistol in my hands!
"No way, you play guns too?" The little boy exclaimed. Ash looked at his pistol, slowly putting it away.
"Err… no?" Ash said uncertainly. The boy pouted,
"Aww, I wanted to play!"
"Oh don't worry; he'll play with you after he comes to our village!" She grabs him with surprising strength and raises him to his feet. He stumbles, yelps, and stumbles some more as he barely caught his camo gear.
"Wait, wait, village?" Ash asked. The girl smiled,
"Of course!" The boy runs forward, yelling in excitement as he kicks up leaves while he runs.
"Wait, I gotta find my friends-"
"The other monster? Oh yeah! And he brought two other people with him, they weren't feeling too good," The girl says as she ran with him. Ash kept up, but was still very confused. And where was he?
"Where are we?" Ash manages to ask. She turns around and grins with an innocent hands-behind-your-back posture,
"We're at Rosetta village; we should be there right about… now!" They burst through a clearing, stopping to see the small village surrounded with trees and foliage. It was surrounded with small houses that were hand made with tools that were obviously scavenged. People were walking around, now paying attention to the newcomer. Now that he had a time to look at everybody, they all had one thing in common. They all had silver like hair and golden eyes. They wore clothes that would be seen in Ash's world, not really what he would see in a world like where he was. In fact, the girl he saw had a red dress with long silver hair and soft golden eyes.
"Come on!" Ash felt awkward as he walked while holding the girl's hand with his own gloved one. He wasn't going to complain, as long as he gets to his friends. He walked through the streets, watching other people giving him a friendly smile and laughing at his getup.
"Here we are!" They stopped at a small house, and Ash was so relieved to see Jonsey and the other two he was with. They were lying down on beds, sitting up. From left to right, the pilot, a blue eyed short haired blond was smoking a cigarette while the gunner was a short stocky brown haired brown eyed guy. They were both around their twenties, with a pained look on their faces. The gunner was bandaged in areas on his face and arms while the pilot had one going around his head.
"Oh thank God," Jonsey said. His camo was replaced with a white T-shirt, and whatever was below was blocked by bed sheets. He was at the left of the gunner's side.
"You guys!" Ash widened his eyes and grinned. The pilot raised a hand,
"Yo sniper dude." The gunner chuckled,
"Good to see you alive, kid."
"Boy am I glad to see you guys!" Ash said. But he was stopped as a girl was feeling him, looking for a way to take off his camo.
"Wh-what are you doing?" Ash asked as he just stared at her. She stopped, tilted her head and smiled.
"You need to take that off don't you?" Ash was now beet red with his hands raised up in defense.
"I-I think I can take it off myself, thanks!" Ash awkwardly said. The three others laughed.
"She did the same to us kid, just show her where to start and she'll do it for you!" The gunner chuckled. Ash turned a darker shade of red.
"I got it…" He took off his camo, leaving only his jumpsuit with him. She received the camo, but still cocked her head.
"What about that?" She pointed at the skin tight jumpsuit that Ash was wearing.
"C-can I at least get some clothes first?" She smiled and gave him white shorts and a white T-shirt. Ash went into a room in where he found out was a bathroom, and changed and came back out.
"Wow, you're the least hurt out of all of them!" The girl exclaimed. She motioned Ash to a bed, lying him down and tucking him in as if he was a little child.
"Oh, wait!" The girl reached into a very ghetto like first aid box and cleaned up the bloody mess that was not drying up. It stung, but Ash went through worse pain in basic training camp. A bandage covered the bridge of his nose, where his cut was, and he blinked once she smiled at how he looked.
"That's better!" The girl said, giggling.
"Oh, food! Be right back!" She sang as she skipped out of the house.
A moment of silence passed by before Ash asked,
"What… just happened?" Jonsey laughed,
"I thought the same thing too before I found out who these guys are." Ash looked at him, he was at his right.
"These guys are the Indigenous people; they managed to survive after all these years. They're really old school, and have all the things we would have about a hundred years back or so," the gunner said. The pilot blew out a puff of smoke,
"Yeah, I heard about them."
"Really ? Last time I checked, you flunked out of high school before you could even learn a thing about this country," the gunner coughed.
"Shut up Howey." The helictoper gunner laughed at his comeback.
"Oh yeah. Ketchup, this is Todd Howey and Mark Bern," Jonsey managed to say.
"Sup sniper dude," Bern said while taking another drag out of his cigarette.
"Is your real name Ketchup? Oh, nice to meet you by the way," The gunner said. He was slightly pudgier than the pilot, round faced for sitting in a gunner's seat for so long.
"Oh, no. It's Ash Ketchum," Ash managed to say before he clutched his stomach area. A sharp pain came from his stomach, and he looked down to see a massive bruise spreading at his core.
"Well, try not to move or talk too much Ash. It looks like you fell and got caught by a branch or something. Just let it heal for now and relax."
"Yeah, listen to Howey. He graduated high school with a 4 point 0 grade point average. He enlisted in the military for a challenge. You hear that? A fucking challenge!" The pilot said as he blew a puff of smoke at Todd's way. Todd coughed, waving his hand to get the smell of smoke out of his face.
"Yeah, and this is the guy who flunked out of high school and smokes cheap cigarettes all day." The pilot laughed, but stopped from the pain.
"Oh yeah. Doesn't mean I can't fly though. I barely got through the written test, but man. I can fly like no other pilot in the Aeonian military man," The pilot took another drag of his cigarette, careful enough to let the ashes fall into a tray.
"Well that explains why we got shot down," Todd mumbled.
"Hey, there were flying Mavericks man. I had to do something real tricky! You couldn't keep up by shooting the bastards down!"
"Yeah, well changing the angle of the chopper would've been fine! I could've taken them out!" The two of them stopped arguing abruptly, clutching where ever they were hurt and groaning.
"You two are quite the bunch," Jonsey laughed. Ash only smiled at the amusement the two gave off. They were an interesting pair.
"Hey! What does bastard mean?" A kid whispered at the entrance. Another kid was snickering next to him, laughing at the two arguing.
"Now look what you did. Hey kid, bastard isn't a good word, don't use it or else you'll get in trouble!" Todd said while he brought a finger to his lips. The kids sniggered,
"Okay mister!" They ran off, playing with whatever they were playing with before.
"You know what; I'm tired as. I'm getting some shut eye," The pilot grimaced.
"Flyboy here's right, we should probably get some sleep," Jonsey said. Ash didn't even need to listen to another word. Just the mention of the world sleep just immediately put him out like candlelight.
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"Uh… sir? Do you think we'll make it?" A dark blue uniformed boy asked. His brown hair and green eyes were very common on this continent.
"Of course we will. Neolian bases should be nearby." Three dark blue uniformed men held rifles and sub machine guns. They trudged through the mud that seemed to suck their boots down when they stepped down. What seemed to be the leader was wearing a dark blue military cap. His raven hair was long enough to stick out of his cap. He was older than the other two, who were youth soldiers.
"Sir, remember? The Neolian bases were overrun; we're practically behind enemy lines now." The youngest one of the three had short blond hair and he held green eyes.
"There's still got to be a way out of this. Don't worry you two." Careful not to break any branches, the three moved very slowly, trying to make sure they weren't followed.
"Hey, what's that?" The youngest out of the three pointed out a figure. Strangely, a stick was pointed at the soft part behind his chin and pointed up. They moved fast, but widened their eyes to see a blue haired man closing his eyes as he held the stick tighter. The problem with that sight was that the object wasn't a stick.
It was a rifle.
"What are you doing?" The youngest out of the three ran forward and pushed the gun away from his head as a bullet flew harmlessly into the sky. The suicidal soldier opened his surprised red eyes, but they turned into orbs of hatred as his face twisted into a snarl. The next thing anybody knew, he was thrown upon the youngest soldier. He pulled out a pistol and held it against his head as he pinned it down.
"Stand down soldier! Stand down!" The man with the cap held his sub-machine gun against his head. The blue haired man slowly threw away his pistol, getting off the young boy. He didn't speak; he only picked up his rifle and started walking.
"Hey! Where are you going?" The man with brown hair and green eyes asked with hostility, aiming his gun at his fellow comrade. The man with the cap put a hand on his gun and made him lower it.
"Whoever you are, do you know where you're going?" The blue haired man turned around and scoffed.
"I'm getting away from here." The Neolian capped man ran and put a hand on his shoulder, but he shrugged it off.
"Come with us. We're finding a way back to a Neolian base. Come on." The blue haired man shook his head. He kept on walking where he was going.
"Wait!" The capped man followed him. The two younger Neolian soldiers looked at each other and sighed. They saw the pattern, but decided to follow them.
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The Neolian captain sighed. He looked at the screen of his completely flat light computer. It was floating in the air as he looked at other screens of other things. But the one he looked at was one that was showing all of his soldiers under his command. He saw that Sergeant Kail has gone AWOL. The captain furrowed his brow, brushing his finger over a part of the soldier's status.
SEND MAVERICK SCOUT SOLDIER?
The captain hesitated, but pressed it down.
COMMAND RECEIVED. MAVERICK SCOUT SOLDIER NOW DEPLOYING
"I trust that you will do the right thing captain," A man said behind the captain. The officer clenched his fist.
"Is Type-25 really ready?" The scientist behind him cackled.
"Neo Project Testament is underdevelopment. That is the only thing I can say. Now, the real test begins. Search and Destroy captain, let's hope the fool does its job." The scientist cackled once more, causing the captain to cringe.
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I decided to take a small break from the hell experience of war and place these people in Rosetta Village. Notice that they don't know much about their outside world. They only know what is inside of their perimeter. And what is going to happen to these four Neolian soldiers? Keep reading, and sorry for tormenting you with a short and late post!